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Review
. 2016 Dec;25(142):431-437.
doi: 10.1183/16000617.0079-2016.

Pregnancy in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Karen M Olsson  1 , Richard Channick  2
Affiliations
Review

Pregnancy in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Karen M Olsson et al. Eur Respir Rev. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Despite advanced therapies, maternal mortality in women with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains high in pregnancy and is especially high during the post-partum period. However, recent data indicates that morbidity and mortality during pregnancy and after birth have improved for PAH patients. The current European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society guidelines recommend that women with PAH should not become pregnant. Therefore, the risks associated with pregnancy must be emphasised and counselling offered to women at the time of PAH diagnosis and to women with PAH who become pregnant. Early termination should be discussed. Women who choose to continue with their pregnancy should be treated at specialised pulmonary hypertension centres with experience in managing PAH during and after pregnancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Editorial comment in Eur Respir Rev 2016; 25: 361–363.

Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at err.ersjournals.com

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Physiological changes in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients which occur in response to pregnancy. NO: nitric oxide; CO: cardiac output; PAH-CHD: PAH associated with congenital heart disease; LV: left ventricle; RV: right ventricle; PVR: pulmonary vascular resistance; SVR: systemic vascular resistance. Reproduced from [7] with permission from the publisher.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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